The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to systems and methods for authentication of users and, more specifically, but not exclusively, to systems and methods for authentication of user signatures.
Users may require authentication of identify when performing financial transactions, agreeing to contracts, or for other reasons. Authentication may be performed in different ways. On possible way is based on a signature of the user. The user hand writes a signature (e.g., onto a piece of paper). The signature may then be compared to a previous sample of the user, such as on the back of a credit card, on a driver's license, or on a passport.
Signature comparison may be manually and/or visually performed, for example, a teller at a cash register visually compares the signature of the customer on the bill to the signature sample of the customer on the back of the credit card used to pay the bill.
Hand written signatures may be digitized. The customer may sign on a touch sensitive pad, such as using a stylus pointer (instead of a pen). The resulting signature is digitized and analyzed. Hand written signatures may also be digitized by being scanned from a paper. The digitized signatures may be compared by a software algorithm to another signature of the user based on the visual appearance of the signature, for example, the curvature of certain letter, or other visual features.
However, the manual and/or electronic signature analysis methods are prone to forgery. A forger that is able to write a signature that looks similar to the signature of the real customer may succeed in impersonating the customer, and thereby able to perform transactions by impersonating the real customer. For example, the forger may make purchases or transfer money, with the customer responsible for the financial transactions.